U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan lends support to Pat Roberts in Senate race
Overland Park ? Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan urged Kansans on Friday to back Republican Sen. Pat Roberts in a tight re-election race, saying that his independent challenger is a liberal who would support President Barack Obama.
Appearing at a hotel in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, the 2012 GOP nominee for vice president was the latest in a string of Republican celebrities scrambling to save Roberts from defeat in a state that has elected only GOP Senators since 1932.
Attention on the Kansas race intensified last month when the Democratic candidate dropped out, giving independent candidate Greg Orman a better chance of defeating Roberts after the 78-year-old emerged vulnerable from a tough GOP primary against a tea party challenger.
Ryan praised Roberts as a doer and said Orman just wanted the trappings of office.
“Anybody who is running for office, running around Kansas saying everything to everybody that they want to hear is somebody who stands for nothing other than self-promotion,” Ryan said, adding that Orman was “nothing more than a liberal who is going to support Harry Reid and Barack Obama.”
Republicans need a net gain of six seats to recapture a majority and have always counted on Roberts winning re-election. He’s seeking to unify the GOP behind him by highlighting his opposition to Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“America is at a crossroads, and right now it is up to Kansas,” Roberts said, describing himself as a “conservative leader with experience who can deliver a Republican Senate majority.”
Orman is running as centrist and says he’ll caucus with whichever party has a clear majority. His campaign manager Jim Jonas said Roberts has been in Washington too long and is out of touch with the needs of Kansans.
“Washington is broken, and Senator Roberts is part of the problem there,” Jonas said in a news release.